Deep Freeze Spreads Across Europe

The frigid weather that plagued Eastern Europe much of last week spread westward over the weekend, grounding flights, snarling traffic, and causing hundreds of deaths. While the subzero temperatures and heavy snowfalls have brought hardship, residents of some areas were able to take advantage of the conditions for skating, sledding, kite surfing, and other winter pastimes. Meteorologists warn that more blizzards may be hitting the region, and state officials, shelters, and aid organizations are preparing to help even more people in need. Gathered here are images of frozen Europe from the past several days.

A boy sits in front of an ice covered car in Versoix, near Geneva, Switzerland, on February 5, 2012. Bitterly cold weather sweeping across Europe claimed more victims on Sunday and brought widespread disruption to transport services, with warnings that the chilling temperatures would remain into next week.#

The moon rises behind snow covered trees near Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, on February 5, 2012. Lowest temperatures in southern parts of the country were at minus 22 degrees Celsius (-7.6 F) during the night.#

The ancient Roman forum, after a snowfall, on February 4, 2012. A rare mantle of snow blanketed the historic center of Rome on February 3, forcing the closure of schools and tourist sites such as the Colosseum.#

A man is knocked off his toboggan by a dog in Newtown Linford, England, on February 5, 2012. Heavy snow fell in some areas of Britain overnight, causing road closures and flight cancellations, and the Met Office warned of icy conditions, local media reported.#

A ferry makes its way through ice sheets covering the water in Hamburg's port area, on February 5, 2012. The deadly cold snap that has gripped Europe for more than a week strained emergency services, wrought travel chaos and claimed more lives on February 5, bringing to more than 300 the tally of victims.#

Smoke rises over the rooftops of central Prague on February 6, 2012 as temperatures dropped to as low as -19.5 degrees Celsius (-3.1 F). Earlier, in Kvilda village, in the South Bohemian Sumava mountains, meteorologists measured the coldest temperature of the winter so far: -39.4 degrees Celsius (-38.92 F).#

A cyclist rides his bicycle on a frozen river near Ragana, Latvia, on February 5, 2012. Many weather observation stations across Latvia registered new record-cold temperatures on Sunday according to the information from the Latvian Environment, Geology and Meteorology Center.#

A member of local polar swimmers club gets out of the Vltava river where water temperatures reached 3 degrees Celsius (37.4 degree F) and air temperatures reached minus 9 degrees Celsius (16 degrees F) in Prague, on February 4, 2012.#

A lion cub plays with a snowball at the Belgrade Zoo, on February 5, 2012. In Serbia, almost 70,000 people were cut off from their villages and 32 municipalities have declared a state of emergency, mostly in the south and southwest of the country. So far, nine people have died of cold in the country.#

A homeless man emerges from an underground heating duct where he lives, in Warsaw, Poland, on February 2, 2012. Freezing temperatures killed nine more people in Poland in the last 24 hours, bringing the overall toll to 29 since the cold snap began a week ago, police said.#

Sunlight falls on a bucket with frozen liquid in a house owned by Oleksandr Berezenets, 30, and his wife Nataliya in the village of Visshya Dubechnya, Ukraine, with the air temperature at about -1 degree Celsius (30.2 degrees F) inside and at about -27 degrees Celsius (-16.6 degrees F) outside, on February 2, 2012.#

A man walks through a park in Burgos as snow hits northern Spain, on February 5, 2012. The Arctic cold snap that has hit Europe for over a week had claimed nearly 300 lives today, brought air travel chaos to London and dumped snow as far south as Rome and even North Africa.#

Ducks rest on the ice in Svisloch river in a park in central Minsk, on February 4, 2012. Unusually cold weather of -24 Celsius (-13 degree F) hit the Belarussian capital on Saturday, according local media.#

A monument is covered with snow in Kiev, on February, 6, 2012 after heavy snowfalls in Ukraine. Ukraine on Monday blamed alcohol abuse as the main cause of deaths caused by a spell of abnormally cold weather that has claimed at least 135 lives over the last 10 days.#

Steam rises from a member of a polar swimmers club, as climbs out of the Vltava river in Prague, after going for a night swim where air temperatures reached -11 degrees Celsius (12.2 degrees F), on February 3, 2012. Four swimmers took part in the swim to honor the legendary late Czech polar swimmer Ladislav Nicek, who died last year at the age of 97.#